The Beginning
Origin of the Gods The essence of existence itself is intertwined with the essence of the creator. That is not to say he has any control over the universe as he does not - he exists beyond the universe. In fact it is fair to say that the creator in no way can affect or change anything within the universe. His eternalness is the same eternalness of the universe and vice versa. No beginning ever existed; there only has ever been the eternity of the creator and existence. Some of the eternal power of the creator seeped into the universe and manifested itself into sentient form. These beings would later come to be known amongst their offspring as Aro, Yor, Koh, Rae, and Oru. These beings have existed eternally in the same infinite cycle that the creator exists in. The difference between these beings and the creator is that they exist inside the universe while the creator resides outside of time and space. The powers of these beings is so great that should they ever have the desire the entirety of all mortal beings could be wiped from existence at an urge. As the scope of infinity drove on and on and the emptiness of the universe expanded, the Risen grew restless. Through all of their perfection they had one need. They had the need for purpose. The Risen began creating. The first plane that was created by the Risen did not survive long enough to be named. Before the first creation the Risen were the image of perfection and were mirror images of one another. After the first creation this began to change. The need for purpose drove the creation. With pure peace and goodness the first plane failed to satiate even the slightest of their desire for purpose. For them peace meant stagnation and stagnation rang of the same endless torment of the nothingness before the first creation. The Risen now tainted by their own doing drove on. They abandoned their first creation and began work on the second plane. In the second creation they endeavored to fix their previous errors. They constructed this plane just as they had done before. It was near perfection, but this time they added created beings in their image. They mirrored themselves perfectly except for in their power, which the beings only maintained a fraction of, and in these beings they placed a certain level of egoism. In their error the beings hid from themselves the most fatal of flaws. The beings that they created were so resourceful in their pursuit of self that they, in completely unforeseen circumstance, banded together and began their own creation. In this creation came beings in number beyond perception. The plane in its infinity was filling with these beings - the Golden. Though as individuals their power paled in comparison to the power of the Risen, the combined power of the Golden was enough to stop the Risen from being able to destroy the plane. In fear the Risen devised a plan to stop the Golden. They created two new planes. In one of these planes they created the mortals. In the next they created a last bastion tied directly to the realm of the mortals. Throughout the infinity of the Golden plane the inconceivable voice of the Risen boomed. The creation of divine law had begun. From that point on no Golden was ever allowed the ability of creating other Golden or the ability to interfere with other planes. Should they attempt to interfere with other planes they are to be imprisoned in the bastion plane. The bastion plane was specifically designed by the Risen as a place of imprisonment for any god that goes against divine law. Should even one of the Risen themselves break these highest of laws they would then find themselves amongst the gods of the bastion plane. Once placed upon this plane the gods are forced to make their existence known to the mortal plane. From there through worship and prayer mortals drain their power and weaken them greatly. There was one more thing the Risen never foresaw in their plans. Amongst the Golden there are those that look strongly upon the mortal race and the embodiment of beliefs that the mortals represent. These gods voluntarily enter the bastion plane in hopes of assisting the mortals and guiding them in whatever way they can. These gods proudly refer to themselves as the clean to differentiate themselves from their counter parts that they see as impure. They voluntarily provide powers to many of the righteous religious orders of the world. The rarest of all are those gods that have been assigned to the bastion plane by one of the Risen themselves not as punishment but instead as some divine cosmic plan. Those that are imprisoned on the bastion plane are often those that are compelled by their own desires which are as diverse as they are many. A number of the imprisoned Golden have learned to directly interact and interfere with the mortal plane. They do this mostly through suggestion and manipulation of emotion. They rarely if ever directly appear to mortals. This has lead to incidents where gods have been known to appear to different regions as different conflicting entities in an attempt to cause widespread political strife. The unclean gods of the bastion after untold years upon the plane have grown quite fond of interfering as best they can in the political affairs of mortals causing problems as best they can. Though their power is limited to mere influence, this has proven to be sufficient a tool in causing widespread warfare. Only the rarest of mortals know the truth about the origin and hierarchy of the gods. This, though extremely rare having happened only a few times through history, occurs when one of Golden interact directly with the mortal plane. This has been known to end with the Golden finding themselves upon the bastion plane, but in times of amazing crisis upon the mortal realms, the Risen allow a select number of Golden to interfere with the mortal timeline indirectly through divine avatars.. The majority of mortals blindly worship them as gods and fight wars in their name. Those inhabiting the bastion planes for divine crimes almost never reveal their true nature to mortals. The clean on the other hand have never been known to hide their nature from mortals and because of this wars are almost never fought in their name. The bastion plane is consisted of mostly the imprisoned Golden with only a small minority being of the clean.